AP-NORC poll: Fear of virus infection spikes among Americans
By SARA BURNETT and EMILY SWANSON

In this March 18, 2020 photo, a traveler checks his mobile telephone while passing a map of the United States on the way to the security checkpoint in the main terminal in Denver International Airport in Denver. Americans are increasingly worried they or a loved one will be infected by the coronavirus, with two-thirds now saying they're at least somewhat concerned — up from less than half who said so a month ago. That's according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that finds about 3 in 10 Americans say they're not worried at all. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)


CHICAGO (AP) — Concern among Americans that they or a loved one will be infected by the coronavirus rose dramatically in the past month, with two-thirds of the country now saying they’re at least somewhat concerned about contracting the COVID-19 illness.

That’s up from less than half who said so in February. Still, a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about 3 in 10 Americans say they’re not worried at all about the coronavirus.

And while the survey found that most say they’re taking at least some actions to prevent the disease from spreading, experts say it also shows the country is not doing all of what’s needed to reduce infections, such as canceling travel.
“Some set of people is still going about their daily lives, and that needs to change pretty rapidly,” said Caroline Pearson, a senior vice president at NORC at the University of Chicago and a health policy expert. “Now they need to do the hard things, not just the easy things that don’t disrupt their life.”

The poll found that younger adults have greater concerns about the coronavirus than older Americans, with 43% of adults under 30 being very worried, compared with 21% of those age 60 and over. Pearson said that may be because younger people are more likely to feel uncertain about jobs or health insurance or to worry about older family members like parents or grandparents.

That disparity by age does not match the threat posed by the virus. Deaths to date in the U.S. mirror the experience in other countries, with about 4 out of 5 fatalities occurring in people 65 and older, and no deaths in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the poll found that about 3 in 10 Americans say they’re highly worried about the illness, about the same number are unconcerned — with 7% saying they were not taking any of the prevention measures asked about in the poll, including more frequent hand washing or staying away from large groups.

That’s a red flag for Libby Richards, a Purdue University nursing professor who teaches courses on population health.

“We do need that 33% to change if we’re going to keep this under control as much as possible,” Richards said, adding that “maybe that 7% of people are already excellent hand washers, but I doubt it.”

IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY:
– Central banks deploy trillions to keep economy running
– Mideast airlines lose $7B as airports shut to combat virus
– U.S. Fed establishes currency swaps with 9 central banks

The survey found that about 9 in 10 Americans say they’re washing their hands more frequently, roughly 7 in 10 are avoiding large groups and about 6 in 10 are avoiding touching their faces. Older Americans are especially likely to say they’re avoiding large groups, with 77% saying they’ve done that in response to the coronavirus.

Public health officials have urged people to do their part to slow the spread of the virus before hospitals and other health facilities are overwhelmed. Schools and sporting events have been canceled, and restaurants and Las Vegas casinos closed. President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday that people should avoid social gatherings with groups of more than 10 people.

But of those who had travel plans in the next few months, a minority — 22% of those who had domestic travel plans and 41% of those with international travel plans — say they’ve canceled them. About another 3 in 10 of each group say they’ve considered canceling, while the rest are still planning to travel.

Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak

On Saturday, Trump expanded European travel restrictions due to the global pandemic, telling Americans, “If you don’t have to travel, I wouldn’t do it.” The CDC has advised that travelers are more likely to get infected if they go to a destination where the virus is spreading and in crowded settings such as airports.

The poll was conducted March 12-16, when information about the virus was changing rapidly, as was the Trump administration’s reaction to it. Trump declared the pandemic a national emergency on March 13, making up to $50 billion available for local and state governments to respond to the crisis, and announced a range of executive actions aimed at expanding testing for the virus. The administration also started work on a $1 trillion aid and stimulus plan.

Richards said she’s hopeful the numbers of Americans worried about the coronavirus would be higher in a poll conducted entirely after Trump declared the national emergency. Still, she said she’s been troubled by people who don’t seem to be taking the warnings seriously, including those she’s seen in images of crowded Florida beaches.

For most people, COVID-19 causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. It can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, for some people, especially older adults and those with existing health problems. Most people recover — those with mild illness in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks, according to the World Health Organization.

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Swanson reported from Washington.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,003 adults was conducted March 12-16 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

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AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.

MASS PRAYER WORKS....AT SPREADING THE VIRUS

Massive Bangladesh coronavirus prayer gathering sparks outcry

AFP / STRPolice said some 10,000 Muslims gathered in an open field in Raipur town in southern Bangladesh to pray "healing verses" from the Koran to rid the country of the deadly novel coronavirus

A massive coronavirus prayer session with tens of thousands of devotees sparked an outcry in Bangladesh Wednesday as the South Asian nation reported its first death from the global pandemic.

Local police chief Tota Miah said some 10,000 Muslims gathered in an open field in Raipur town in southern Bangladesh to pray "healing verses" from the Koran to rid the country of the deadly virus.

"They held the Khatme Shifa prayers after dawn to free the country from the coronavirus," Miah told AFP.

Organisers claimed the number of worshippers was 25,000.

He said organisers did not get permission from authorities to hold the session.

Photos of the gathering was widely shared on social media, with commenters slamming the massive rally.

Authorities have already shut schools and asked locals to avoid large gatherings in an effort to halt the spread of the disease.

"Unbelievable how they even have done it without notifying the police? They will be held responsible if anything happens to the people in the region," Abdur Rahman wrote on Facebook.

Despite the appeal from authorities to avoid crowded public areas, many took the opportunity to head to tourism sites.

Police said they had to close two beaches, including one at Cox's Bazar, the main resort district of the country, and which is home to nearly one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

A senior leader from the ruling Awami League, Obaidul Quader, said a lockdown might be required to contain the virus.

"If necessary, Bangladesh will be shut down. It'll be enforced where necessary. People must be saved first. We'll do everything for that," he told reporters.

The number of positive cases in the country of 168 million people stands at 14, although some medical experts fear not enough tests were being conducted.

CAN THE POWER OF PRAYER ALONE STOP A PANDEMIC LIKE THE CORONAVIRUS? EVEN THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD THOUGHT OTHERWISE 
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/can-power-of-prayer-alone-stop-pandemic.html

Perfect storm of virus peril in Asia's sprawling slums

AFP / Maria TANHundreds of millions of people are packed into Asia's massive slums, where staying clean is nearly impossible and people have to leave their homes daily to survive

Mary Grace Aves is terrified of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, but the best weapons to protect her family -- isolation and sanitation -- are unreachable luxuries in the Manila shantytown they call home.

The same particularly dangerous set of threats loom over hundreds of millions packed into Asia's massive slums, where staying clean is nearly impossible and people have to leave their homes daily to survive.

"It may be possible (to isolate) in other areas because they are rich. They have big spaces," said Aves, a mother of four. "Here we are crammed."

"If you run into somebody on the way out of the house you will touch," the 23-year-old said from her closet-sized home in Manila's Tondo district.

Asian nations have imposed increasingly heavy measures to fight the contagion, with the Philippines ordering around half of its 110 million people to stay home.

That quarantine includes Manila, but there was no sign of authorities enforcing it in slum areas on Wednesday. The order was being flouted in many parts of the sprawling metropolis.

AFP / Maria TANAsian nations have imposed increasingly heavy measures to fight the COVID-19 contagion

Because the virus spreads through droplets that can be picked up with one touch or inhaled from a sick person's sneeze, global health authorities say the best protection is staying home and keeping hands clean.

"But what if you cannot do either of those things?", asked Annie Wilkinson, a fellow at research group Institute of Development Studies, in an opinion piece.

"There is a real risk that the impacts on the urban poor will be considerably higher than elsewhere," she wrote.

East Asia and the Pacific are home to 250 million slum-dwellers, many of them in China, Indonesia and the Philippines, a 2017 World Bank study said.

AFP / Maria TANHomes in these slums are tightly-packed, tiny spaces that are only big enough for sleeping and lack running water

Homes in these slums are tightly-packed, tiny spaces that are only big enough for sleeping and lack running water.

Cooking, laundry, personal hygiene and leisure are done in common spaces filled with people, which means residents have to be in public in order to survive.

In Aves's settlement, there are no surgical masks, hand sanitizer or sinks, and toilets are buckets emptied directly into the black water of the Estero de Vita river.

The narrow, muddy passages between the homes are only wide enough for one person, so locals touch frequently as they slide past one another.

An infection there would have everything it needs to spread.

- 'Life and death difference' -

More than 218,000 cases of the COVID-19 infection have now been detected globally, with nearly 9,000 deaths.

Asia's poorest have been largely left to protect themselves as the outbreak accelerates.

AFP / Maria TANThe strength of a nation's healthcare system has been a key factor in death rates

Neither Indonesia nor India have imposed lockdowns, and have not taken significant steps specifically directed at preventing outbreaks in shantytowns.

In Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said the government would not impose a large-scale urban lockdown against the virus because it would extract too great an economic toll.

"If we shut down the cities -- people are already facing difficult circumstances -- we will save them from corona at one end, but they will die from hunger on other side," Khan said.

Tondo residents said they had been out of work since the Philippines' quarantine kicked in but would be forced to go out to find other employment once their money ran out in a matter of days.

Unlike wealthier communities that can restrict access to outsiders with entrance gates or security guards, slum areas are wide open.

AFP / Maria TANTondo residents said they had been out of work since the Philippines' quarantine began

"There's a possibility we'll get infected because we can't control who comes here," said 48-year-old Fely Tumbaga, who runs a small store in Tondo.

"We don't know if outsiders have the virus," she added, noting that locals were increasingly wary of anyone they didn't know.

For slum dwellers who develop severe cases, reluctance to seek care due to the cost involved could prove a deadly decision.

The strength of a nation's healthcare system has been a key factor in death rates, but so is the severity of infection when people seek treatment.

Public health expert Gideon Lasco said the ability to pay but also to reach the hospital as lockdowns tighten will be decisive.

"Immediate access to quality care can mean the difference between life and death," he said.

Man dies by apparent suicide in ICE family detention center

HOUSTON (AP) — A man died by apparent suicide at one of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s family detention centers, according to a legal group that was representing him.

The group, RAICES, did not identify the man, and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But in a statement late Wednesday, RAICES said it was representing the man while he was detained at the Karnes County Residential Center in South Texas.

His death on Wednesday was the ninth to occur in ICE custody since the start of the governmental fiscal year in October, exceeding the eight deaths that occurred in the prior year.

It comes as advocates have called on ICE to reduce its detainee population and its operations to arrest migrants in the U.S. without authorization amid the coronavirus outbreak. ICE said Wednesday that it would scale back enforcement to detain “public safety risks and individuals subject to mandatory detention based on criminal grounds.”

“We anticipate that this won’t be the last death at Karnes unless ICE immediately releases all those detained at this detention center and in custody around the country,” Lucia Allain, a spokeswoman for RAICES, said in a statement. “A dirty and cramped detention center in the face of a pandemic is unsafe and inhumane.”

In sworn legal declarations the group released Tuesday, two migrants reported getting sick from the drinking water they are provided at Karnes, which had 680 people in detention last week. Another migrant said detainees are denied access to hand sanitizer. They are instead told to use body wash in the showers to clean their hands at all times.

ICE said in a statement that the facility has hand soap dispensers that are checked twice daily and detained migrants are “encouraged” to report any shortages. The agency also said it provides free water, milk, and juice.

Already, illnesses spread quickly in Karnes and other detention centers, said Andrea Meza, director of family detention services for RAICES.

“When you’re there, all the kids are coughing,” she said. “Everybody has a runny nose and a sore throat and diarrhea.”

Spirited response: Irish gin distillery turns hand to sanitiser

AFP / Paul Faith

"You could say it's a very, very strong gin," said managing director Bronagh Conlon. "We would absolutely not recommend anybody to drink it"


The gin stills of the Listoke Distillery have been repurposed in the fight against the coronavirus, producing precious hand sanitiser currently in vanishingly short supply across Ireland.

"Basically we're actually using the same ingredients -- so for all intents and purposes you could say it's a very, very strong gin," managing director and co-founder Bronagh Conlon told AFP.

"We would absolutely not recommend anybody to drink it."

Staff at the distillery and gin school in Tenure, in eastern Ireland north of Dublin, originally began production of sanitiser with 64 percent alcohol, with the same aroma of juniper botanicals as their artisanal spirit, for in-house use.

AFP / Paul Faith 

Conlon estimates they have sold 3,500 to 4,000 bottles

 since Saturday, providing a vital boost to the fight against infection

But as the COVID-19 emergency escalated, they started selling bottles to the public for 10 euros ($11) each. They also donate bottles to frontline homelessness charities.

Conlon estimates they have sold 2,000 litres or 3,500 to 4,000 bottles of the product since Saturday, providing a vital boost to the fight against infection.

"It's just a way that we can all help," said Conlon, 55. "It's absolutely uncharted waters for everybody."

- A welcome tonic -

On Wednesday, staff worked frantically to serve customers at a hastily erected sales table stacked with sanitiser and gin, with supplies of the former nearly sold out.

"Keep warm with that gin, and keep clean with the hand sanitiser," a staff member joked with one customer who bought a bottle of each.

AFP / Paul Faith

Customers queued out of the front door of the warehouse distillery and into the car park of the industrial estate outside, obeying strict "social distancing" measures

Customers queued out of the front door of the warehouse distillery and into the car park of the industrial estate outside, obeying strict "social distancing" measures recommended by the government in Dublin.

One elderly customer sported a surgical mask as she made her purchase.

Ireland has had two deaths from COVID-19 and 292 confirmed cases, according to health department figures released Tuesday night.

AFP / Paul Faith

One elderly customer sported a surgical mask as she made her purchase

Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has estimated Ireland may count 15,000 cases by the end of March and put out a call to qualified healthcare workers currently not working in the sector to return.

"Tonight I know many of you are feeling scared and overwhelmed," he said in a rare televised address to the nation on Tuesday night.

"That is a normal reaction, but we will get through this and we will prevail."

Pubs, schools and universities have been closed; gatherings of more than 100 have been curbed; and working from home has been encouraged across Ireland.

- Keeping spirits high -

Ministers have assured the public there is no need to stockpile or panic buy as face masks, hand sanitisers and soap have been stripped from supermarket shelves.

AFP / Paul Faith

Distillery staff originally began production of sanitiser for in-house use

As a breast cancer survivor, Conlon is particularly aware of the plight of those who are medically vulnerable to the infection.

"What we've sold is a fraction of what's needed," she said.

"It's really, really worrying the amount of people that are out there that are so worried, they have no access... to hand sanitisers.

"It's terrible -- it's absolutely frightening."

Clutching one bottle each of hand sanitiser and gin outside the distillery customer Una Hatch, 70, said the former was "very badly needed".

"You can't get it anywhere," she said.

"I think it's great -- a great idea of somebody thinking outside the box," she said of the distillery's initiative.

"It's bringing out the best in people I think."

Researchers find new way to predict where ocean trash, seaweed will go


Researchers with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deploy plastic mats in the Caribbean in 2019 as part of a study on the movement of floating items by University of Miami's Rosentstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Photo courtesy of NOAA

ORLANDO, Fla., March 19 (UPI) -- Researchers in Florida have devised a new method to predict where ocean trash, seaweed or even wrecked ships and planes will drift, potentially boosting efforts to clean up huge ocean garbage patches twice the size of Texas.

Scientists at the University of Miami employed buoys to test new mathematical models for predicting how wind, current and buoyancy determine the speed and direction of objects in the ocean. The buoys moved almost exactly as predicted.

The new models could aid cleanup of trash like the Great Pacific garbage patch, an area of plastic trash accumulation that is more than 600,000 square miles. The research also might aid efforts to provide forecasts for seaweed pileups in tourism areas.

"Our work will aid strategies to help clean up the oceans," said Maria Josefina Olascoaga, an associate professor of ocean sciences at the university's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Research into the movement of trash at sea has grown in recent years, with significant advancements. Models, for example, successfully predicted the arrival in Hawaii of debris from the 2011 Japan tsunami.

The findings from the Rosenstiel School's science provide another model, and could be used to determine which beaches will get ocean litter, said George Leonard, chief scientist at the non-profit Ocean Conservancy, which advocates for the protection of marine resources.

"It does appear to me that [the Rosenstiel School research] could provide insights about where the bigger stuff like fishing gear goes, especially," Leonard said. "Most trash doesn't float. It's been determined that you can only see about 3 percent of the plastic that goes into the ocean every year."

Next up for the Rosenstiel School's research is another study on how seaweed moves in the Gulf Stream, a strong ocean current just off Florida's southeast coast.

Record amounts of smelly seaweed caused historic damage to beaches and reduced tourism in 2019 in Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean.

"The dynamics of stuff that floats on the surface of the ocean is different than the ocean currents," said Olascoaga's research partner, Francisco Beron-Vera, associate professor at the Rosenstiel School. "We found that the buoyancy of an object has more effect on its trajectory than other factors -- more than radius, shape or immersion depth."

"We hope this work inspires others to use experimental data to model the world's oceans," Olascoago said.

Mathematicians in U.S., Israel share Abel Prize

Hillel Furstenberg is retired from the Hebrew University of 

Jerusalem. File Photo courtesy of the Abel Prize

March 18 (UPI) -- Two professors who pioneered ways to use randomness to solve important questions about numbers won Norway's Abel Prize, the mathematics committee announced Wednesday.

The recipients -- Hillel Furstenberg from the Hebew University of Jerusalem and Gregory Margulis from Yale University -- will share the $834,000 award. Both are retired.

"The works of Furstenberg and Margulis have demonstrated the effectiveness of crossing boundaries between separate mathematical disciplines and brought down the traditional wall between pure and applied mathematics," Abel committee Chairman Hans Munthe-Kaas said.

He said the two men used probabilistic methods and a technique called random walks to solve mathematical problems. Their work has shed light on the existence of long arithmetic progressions of prime numbers, the structure of lattices in Lie groups, and the construction of expander graphs with applications to communication technology and computer science.

Furstenberg, 84, was born in Berlin in 1935 and his family fled Nazi Germany for the United States in 1939. He had a career in mathematics at multiple U.S. universities before leaving to work in Jerusalem.

Margulis, a 74-year-old Russian native, won the Fields Medal for his work in mathematics in 1978. he worked at the Institute for Problems in Information Transmission in Russia before going to the United States to work for Yale in 1991. He's also won the Lobachevsky and Wolf prizes during his career.

The Abel Prize, which is awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, will not be presented in a formal ceremony this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

On This Day: In 1962, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan releases his debut album, Bob Dylan, on Columbia Records.

UPI File Photo

Bob Dylan is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on March 19, 1962 by Columbia Records.

Studio: Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Aven...

Genre: Folk; country blues; protest music;

Released: March 19, 1962

Producer: John H. Hammond

Bob Dylan (album) - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Bob_Dylan_(album)

Cecil B. DeMille wins his only Academy Award
On March 19, 1953, legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille won the only Academy Award of his career when "The Greatest Show on Earth," a big-budget extravaganza about circus life, was acclaimed the Best Picture.

March 19 UPI Staff  -- On this date in history:

In 1909, financier J.P. Morgan, during a meeting with King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy in Rome, pledged to help wipe out the black hand and similar criminal societies in the United States through education.

In 1916, eight Curtiss JN-3 "Jenny" airplanes with the First Aero Squadron took off from Columbus, N.M., to aid troops that had invaded Mexico in pursuit of the bandit Pancho Villa. It was the first U.S. air combat mission in history.

In 1918, the U.S. Congress passed the Standard Time Act, which authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to establish standard time zones and daylight saving time.

In 1931, the Nevada Legislature voted to legalize gambling.

File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI

In 1987, South Carolina televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as head of the PTL Club, saying he was blackmailed after a sexual encounter with a former church secretary.

In 1991, the NFL voted to revoke the plan for Phoenix to host the 1993 Super Bowl because the city did not observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

In 2005, Pakistan successfully tested a nuclear-capable missile with a range of 1,250 miles.

In 2011, former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher died of cancer at the age of 85.

In 2019, Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned as president of Kazakhstan. After 30 years as president, he was the last Soviet-era president still in office.

File Photo by Pang Xinglei/UPI

Read More

UPI Archives: DeMille family biography depicts an American dynasty

UPI Archives: DeMille chattels sold for $71l,000

Rastafarian fights solitary confinement over dreadlocks

Eric McGill Jr., awaiting trial on charges stemming from a shooting, has been placed in solitary confinement for refusing to cut his dreadlocks. Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project

March 19 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania inmate placed in solitary confinement because he refuses to cut off his dreadlocks is asking a judge to expedite his lawsuit challenging his detention conditions.

Eric McGill Jr. -- a Rastafarian who follows the "nazirite vow" taken by Samson in the Bible to avoid cutting his hair -- has been in administrative segregation in the Lebanon County Correctional Facility since his arrival on Jan. 19, 2019.

McGill, 27, who is awaiting trial on charges stemming from a shooting that injured four people, was put in solitary confinement for failing to comply with a rule prohibiting braids and cornrows.

The jail's rules, which officials say aim to stop inmates from hiding contraband in their hair and to ensure cleanliness, allow long hair only if it is tied up or worn in a single ponytail. No religious exemptions are made for dreadlocks.

McGill offered to tie up his dreadlocks, but he still landed in the jail's Security Housing Unit for refusing to have them cut off, according to his lawsuit.

McGill is allowed out of his cell for up to one hour a day five days a week between 10 p.m. and midnight for recreation, according to the suit. That is the only time McGill can use the phone, and he is limited to one visit a week for a maximum of 30 minutes. The lights in the unit are on at all hours.

The conditions have caused McGill to suffer depression and frequent panic attacks and exacerbated a previously diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, the suit alleges.

Suit: cruel and unusual

At first, McGill, who is not a lawyer, filed a suit himself alleging cruel and unusual punishment and false imprisonment and sought to end his solitary confinement. He later wrote to the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, and the nonprofit is representing him for free.

The project provides assistance to low-income people who are incarcerated or institutionalized in civil cases that allege their constitutional rights have been violated.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks McGill's immediate placement in the general jail population and an unspecified amount of money for compensatory and punitive damages. Warden Robert Karnes, two other correctional employees and Lebanon County are named as defendants

McGill's attorneys contend his placement in solitary confinement violates the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, which bars prisons and jails from placing arbitrary or unnecessary restrictions on religious practice.

"Mr. McGill believes that his spirit lives through his dreadlocks," the suit says. "Mr. McGill also believes that his dreadlocks keep him spiritually pure, a requisite for entry into the afterlife. For Mr. McGill, cutting off his dreadlocks would be akin to cutting off his strength and his spirit."

The suit also alleges the defendants are violating McGill's right under the 14th Amendment's due process clause to be free from punishment as a pretrial detainee.

'Dreadlocks detached'

The defendants have responded in court documents that the braids and cornrows policy in the jail's rules is reasonable and has legitimate interests of security and cleanliness. They say the policy applies to all inmates, and those who keep their dreadlocks are placed in administrative segregation.




"Other inmates chose to have the dreadlocks detached, at which time inmates were removed from administrative segregation and placed into the general population," attorney Peggy Morcom, who represents Lebanon County and its employees, wrote.

Another attorney for the defendants, Matthew Clayberger, argues in a brief that McGill "refers to the security housing unit as 'solitary confinement,' but the evidence will prove that this is simply not the case."

Clayberger declined to discuss the case.

The Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project lawyers argue that the rules do not cover dreadlocks because they are not braids or cornrows. Dreadlocks form naturally without any manipulation in some people's hair.

"Once hair has naturally formed dreadlocks, it cannot be taken out of dreadlocks. The only way to 'remove' natural dreadlocks is to cut them off," the suit says.

Managing attorney Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz said several other Rastafarian inmates have been put in solitary confinement for declining to cut their dreadlocks. Prisoners with long straight hair are allowed to pull their hair into a ponytail, but offers by these inmates to tie up their hair were rejected, she said.

Morgan-Kurtz said any security concerns could be addressed with searches and disputed that there is a cleanliness issue with dreadlocks, calling that assertion "racist." She pointed out that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, as well as the federal Bureau of Prisons and many jails and prisons in the country, permit dreadlocks.

In addition to McGill and other prisoners who are in administrative segregation, prisoners who are in disciplinary confinement are put in the Security Housing Unit, the suit says. The estimated sentences for intoxication, fighting and threatening an employee with bodily harm range from 30 to 120 day, the suit says.




Earlier this month, McGill's lawyers filed a request for limited, expedited discovery, which is the pretrial exchange of evidence. The request is pending.

'Social death'

The United Nations has recognized solitary confinement for any duration lasting more than 15 days as a form of torture. The American Civil Liberties Union says solitary confinement costs too much, does nothing to rehabilitate prisoners and causes or exacerbates mental illness.

Alexander Reinert, a law professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York City, describes solitary confinement as a form of "social death." Even when it's imposed for a short period, solitary confinement has a detrimental effect on a person's psychological and physical health, and as the time in isolation gets longer, the risk of harm increases, he said.

"Solitary confinement is the most severe kind of punishment that we inflict on people short of executing them," said Reinert, who specializes in the rights of prisoners and detainees.

Two recent reports by the Association of State Correctional Administrators and the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School show that prison directors around the country are trying to reduce the use of solitary confinement, Reinert said.

However, isolating inmates still is used too much and for too long, he said. In addition, prison systems have increased the kinds of disciplinary incidents that are punished with solitary confinement, he said.

The reports define solitary confinement as holding individuals in their cells for 22 hours or more each day and for 15 continuous days or more at a time. They estimate that on an average day, as many as 5 percent of prisoners are held in solitary.

FDA halting of foreign drug factory checks during pandemic raises concerns


The FDA has suspended foreign inspections through April amid the coronavirus pandemic. Photo courtesy of Michael J. Ermarth/U.S. Food and Drug Administration

EVANSVILLE, Ind., March 19 (UPI) -- Concerns are growing that the safety and efficacy of imported medical supplies might deteriorate, now that the United States has halted inspections at foreign drug manufacturing facilities.

The Food and Drug Administration last week suspended its inspections of thousands of international plants that supply the United States with critical drugs and medical supplies through April due to travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The lack of oversight increases the likelihood that issues with poor sanitation or inadequate product testing could go unnoticed and uncorrected, consumer safety advocates say.

"The FDA has said they will use other procedures to ensure the products entering the U.S. are safe, but I don't know how they can do that," said Michael Carome, the director of the Public Citizen Health Research Group, a consumer advocacy group.

"Only an onsite inspector will see things like rodent feces all over the floor of a factory, or that the machinery is not being sanitized. A company is not going to tell you that."

More than 70 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients and more than half the finished medications consumed in the United States are produced overseas, according to Janet Woodcock, the director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Of the active ingredients, the largest amount -- 26 percent -- is produced in the European Union, according to Woodcock. India is next, producing 18 percent, while China produces 13 percent.

In 2019, the FDA's 200 inspectors conducted some 966,000 international site visits. The agency reported safety violations at about 9 percent of those sites. India was the biggest offender, with violations at 17 percent of its inspected plants.

Many of the violations involved inadequate -- or nonexistent -- product testing, Carome said. Plants are required by FDA to test their products before and after production to ensure they contain the appropriate amount the active ingredients and are free of contaminants.

Other common violations involve improper factory sanitation, Carome said. In 2017, for example, an inspector touring a Chinese drug manufacturing plant found rodent feces throughout the facility, including areas where the drugs were manufactured and stored.

That facility, Bicooya Cosmetics Limited, supplied ingredients for products sold in Dollar Tree stores, the FDA said.

When inspectors find such issues, the FDA can then block the import of products produced at those facilities until the issues are resolved.

"Now, they've suspended all inspections," Carome said. "While that is understandable, it does raise real concerns about the safety of drugs and medical devices coming into the U.S."

Foreign facilities that process food for American export are more commonly inspected by third-party auditors who have been accredited by the FDA, said Howard Sklamberg, a former FDA deputy commissioner for global regulatory operations and policy. It's unclear whether this inspections will continue through the outbreak.

Beyond safety and quality concerns, some in the medical field fear the freeze on foreign inspections could impact the United States' ability to obtain medical supplies.

The FDA requires any new manufacturing plant to pass an inspection before it can send medicines and medical supplies to the United States.

"If a company changes manufacturers, that requires FDA approval," said Mike Heyl, a partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, who helps medical supply manufacturers comply with FDA regulations. "We've already had a number of cases where applications are delayed."

What's more concerning, Heyl said, is what will happen when an overseas manufacturing facility has to shut and change locations because the plant has been contaminated by coronavirus.

"If suddenly a plant needs to move, that requires an inspection," Heyl said. "How do we get those?"

In a statement announcing the decision to suspend inspections, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said that foreign inspections that are "deemed mission-critical will still be considered on a case-by-case basis."

"We are aware of how this action may impact other FDA responsibilities, including product application reviews," Hahn said. "We will be vigilant and monitor the situation very closely."

The other type of inspection, known as a "for cause inspection," is conducted if the FDA has reason to suspect an issue with a medicine or medical device, former deputy commissioner Sklamberg said.

The FDA has several workarounds in lieu of on site inspections, Hahn said. One is to simply deny entry to "unsafe products."

The agency also will physically examine and or sample products at the border, he said.

"Is that a good thing [inspections are suspended]? No," Sklamberg said, who is now a partner at the Akin Gump law firm. "But is it a cause for alarm? No. Now, if you delay it long enough, it will have an impact. I don't know where that line is, but the longer it goes on, the greater the incremental risk."

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